Players To Be Named Later

Players to be named later must be named within six months of the trade they're a part of. They tend to be minor leaguers, as they cannot have spent time in the major leagues between the day the trade is announced and the day it is completed. Here are a couple instances in which the PTBNL can be useful:

The teams are only sure about half of the exchange, but they want to deal right away.

The clubs agree that the PTBNL will be chosen from a set list of players.

Once a draft pick signs, he can't be traded for a year. If teams want to deal recently-drafted players, they can complete part of the deal and name the final player once he's eligible to be traded.

Instead of naming a player, teams can exchange money to complete a deal.